Inevitably, Trump "defenders" will attempt to address the criticism of the [possibly criminal] meeting by Junior, Kushner and Manafort and Russian operatives, with a typical, "what about Clinton paying Steele for a dossier on Trump"???
Objectively, there is some lop-sided "logic" to this divertive defense........BUT, two factors must also be considered:
First, Steele is from a nation that is our closest ALLY, versus the attempt to gather opposition research by a country that is a long time ADVERSARY to the U.S.
Second, as we have long learned from the Watergate scandal, the initial wrong-doing PALES in comparison to the attempt to cover up the mistake......Trump has flip-flopped several times in his attempt to covering up the fiasco....directly implicating himself and his family.
Like most ANTI Trump threads on this forum, I expect this one to soon disappear....so, give it a shot in addressing it before the inevitable.
The only problem with the Trump Tower was that the boychinkins did discuss removing effects of the Maginsky Act for dirt on Hillary with the knowledge that the Russian lawyer was actually a Russian spy. That would be a felony, if it can be proven in court.
It would not be illegal to pay a Russian lawyer for opposition research.
But my guess is that the Trump Tower meeting will be sufficiently ambiguous enough to not show anything, beyond Trump knew of it beforehand and crafted statements that ended up being perjury for various underlings .... including the boychinkins. Indictments? Who knows. Not unless there's a bigger game afoot, imo.
The larger problem, imo, for Trump and Trumpbots is whether there's any evidence showing Trump knew of Russian hacking and used information from the hacking in his campaign. The hacking did not come from private individuals. THAT is why Rosenstein teed up the 14 Russians BEFORE Trump blew Putin at Sucksinsky.
You’re assessment of the legal ramifications of the Trump Tower meeting are incorrect. Obtaining dirt from a foreign government, to aid your political campaign is illegal.
The illegal part is “from a foreign government”. This is “conspiring with a foreign government” and it is very illegal.
Junior KNEW he was meeting with a Russian government lawyer. He was thrilled that the Russians wanted to help elect his father. This is the very definition of “collusion” which puts the lie to Trump’s “no collusion” mantra.
In addition to throwing his son under the bus on conspiracy charges, Dumb Donald has now said his son lied to Congress about the purpose of the meeting, and lying to Congress is a felony.
Last but not least, Trump has admitted to dictating the statement to the New York Times about that meeting, the statement which was later proven to be a lie, top to bottom. That ties into Dumb Donald’s ongoing pattern of obstruction of the Russia Investigation since that meeting was already investigation.
President Trump keeps changing his story on all things having to do with the Trump Campaign and its contacts with Russians.
If there is “no collusion”, why are you lying about this? How is the Mueller Investigation a “witch hunt” or a “hoax” when you have now admitted that your campaign did collude with Russian government officials around sanctions, and the President lied to the American public and the press.
Is the press, which has consistently reported the facts of the Russian Investigation, really the “enemy of the people”? Or is the man who has consistently lied, changed the narrative, covered up one set of lies with another set of lies, and denigrated those who both investigated and found the truth and those who reported it, the real enemy of the people here.
As I watch Vladimir Putin’s view of NATO and foreign policy being Trump’s policy, and the destruction of the world trade deals the US government established and which made the US the wealthiest nation on earth, being dismantled to the benefit of China and Russia, I have no doubt as to which it is.
was acting as an actual representative of the Russian govt, with the knowledge of the Russian govt, and was authorized to provide something in exchange for Trump doing something regarding the Maginsky Act.
